Tampopo Japanese Cafe — Restaurant in Dallas

We just moved here from the NE and we have been to top notch sushi restaurants. We said we were going to wait to find out the good restaurants in the area from speaking to people but we hadn’t come across any yet and had a urge for sushi tonight. We ordered takeout online and I went to pick it up. When I walked in to place smelled funny. The guy behind the country was friendly. I was confused because as I hadn’t been there before I thought it was a Mexican place and told him so as it was my first time there and that I had ordered online. He was putting my order in a bag and I asked if the soy sauce, wasabi and ginger were also in the bag. He duked behind the counter and was gone for quite a bit then came back with one little small packet. I said that two people were eating and he said that there was some in the containers. I made sure there were chopsticks and left. When I got home the mochi I ordered was a huge laugh and they should be ashamed to rip people off like that. The rolls were a huge disappointment. The raw sushi was warm. The rice was mushy and disgusting. Which then made me question the fish. There was no soy sauce, wasabi and ginger besides what was in that little pocket. Which was meant now for the two of us. I was hungry so I picked at some of the rolls but didn’t eat much. I’m am praying that I do not regret what I ate tomorrow. If I do I will edit this post to state that if I don’t then I was not in the worst situation tomorrow. Anyway, we will not be returning to this place again and don’t recommend it to anyone. For the price here you can get good...

First time I came here, the experience was decent enough. I had the veggie bento which I thought was yummy and filling and good for the price. Boyfriend had the curry which was decent flavor because they clearly used the Japanese boxed curry. But that's common so not a big deal. However the curry came with a small portion of a frozen bag of mixed veggies that normally you don't see in Japanese curry. The tonkatsu was okay.

The second time around we ordered two basic rolls which were incredibly bland. The rice wasn't properly seasoned/lacked rice vinegar, and only contained a small portion of the meat component which was surprising. The tempura roll was just rice, seaweed and... A fried shrimp haha. No veggies or kewpie/mayo. Additionally it was oil logged and the shrimp was freezer burnt. The other roll didn't taste fresh in the least. Pretty much all the food is frozen, which I'm sure is the sacrifice for keeping prices lower than competing sushi places.

Would only come again for the veggie bento if i was craving it and didn't want to spend a lot. Anything else? I'll probably just go to another place.

I should also mention however that both visits, the staff was very friendly...

My girlfriend and I have tried many, many sushi places in the DFW area in addition to traditional Japanese restaurants. However, whenever we try a new place, we always find ourselves wishing it tasted a little more like tampopo. Their house salad is gigantic, delicious, and extremely reasonably priced. My absolute favorite, the beef udon special, is something I get almost every time I enter their establishment. I’ve tried every other udon soup here in town and tampopo cafe is hands down the best I’ve had. Their sushi may not look like anything special but they are large rolls and are full of fresh fish at minuscule prices. If you like volcano rolls — try their take on an American favorite. Of course, don’t forget to try their traditional food like their bento boxes which are to die for and their katsu-don. They even have BBQ eel that’s the cheapest in the city! Overall, we love this place and are so happy we live less than 5 minutes away. We go...